1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device according to the generic clause of claim 1, i.e. to a component for mounting on a printed circuit board, comprising a multiplicity of electrical terminal members for connection to the circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
Such a component is, for example, the electrical connector shown in FIG. 5. The electrical connector shown consists in essence of contact elements, not shown in FIG. 5, for connecting the electrical connector to another electrical connector, a housing 1 enclosing the contact elements, electrical terminal members 2 extending out of housing 1 for soldering the electrical connector to a printed circuit board LP, and an alignment plate 3.
By means of the alignment plate 3, the electrical terminal members 2 of the electrical connector are held in a predetermined relative position. As regards further details of alignment plate 3, reference is made to document DE 197 54 877 A1.
Holding of the electrical terminal members in a predetermined relative position is of advantage in particular when the electrical connector is a component for surface mounting, i.e. when the electrical terminal members are so-called SMT contacts.
SMT contacts are designed to be soldered to surface contacts of the printed circuit board. In this regard, soldering paste is applied first to the surface contacts of the circuit board, thereafter the component to be soldered to the circuit board is arranged on the circuit board, and finally the soldering operation proper takes place by heating the locations concerned.
For performing proper soldering, the locations of the electrical terminal members of the electrical connector to be soldered to the surface contacts of the circuit board must be in contact with the soldering paste during heating; otherwise, a solder connection obviously cannot be established between the surface contacts of the circuit board and the electrical terminal members of the electrical connector.
For this reason, the locations to be soldered of the electrical terminal members of a component have to be located approximately in one plane. Possibly existing deviations from a coplanar arrangement of these locations are tolerable to a very limited extent only.
This is a serious problem in particular with components having a very large number of electrical terminal members.
For eliminating this problem, the electrical terminal members of surface-mountable components are not seldom fixed in their proper relative position by the aforementioned alignment plate 3. The effect achievable thereby is that the locations to be soldered of all electrical terminal members are located in one plane.
That the electrical terminal members of a component assume an exactly prescribed relative position may also be necessary for components that are not designed for surface mounting. In this case, too, the use of an alignment plate or the like may turn out to be advantageous.
However, the manufacture and in particular the mounting of such alignment plates involve a not inconsiderable expenditure